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Lisa Murkowski pens revenue-sharing expansion bill

'All of this is in the very, very early stages,' a Murkowski staffer said. | AP Photo

It would be part of an early push by the panel to build momentum early this Congress around some creative deal making by Wyden and Murkowski.

The panel’s early agenda will include a hearing — possibly spanning multiple days — to take a broad look at natural gas, including the economic benefits of the production boom, hydraulic fracturing, exports and the impact on greenhouse gas emissions, Campbell said.

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There will also be public lands bills offered early in the session, and Murkowski and Wyden plan to hold markups for those “on a very regular basis,” Campbell said. He said to also expect bills early on regarding hydropower and that Wyden and others may push forestry and energy-efficiency measures.

By late January, Murkowski is likely to release her blueprint for energy issues after she speaks to Wyden and other panel members, he said. “We don’t want to surprise anybody,” Campbell said.

Senate Republicans on Thursday announced that Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and freshmen Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) will join the energy panel this Congress. They will replace GOP Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee, Dan Coats of Indiana and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Alexander has previously sought bipartisan deals on electric vehicles and nuclear waste storage while being a leading opponent of wind-energy subsidies.

Flake told POLITICO on Thursday that he will look to “try to expedite approval of permitting on federal lands for natural gas. That’s the hang-up right now.” He will refashion bills he introduced in the House.

Another former House member and new Senate energy panelist, freshman Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), said he will continue to push policies that won him the strong backing of environmental groups in his campaign.

“I’m going to continue to support a policy that says over time, we should be more and more domestic, more and more clean,” he told reporters shortly after being sworn in as a senator Thursday. “But in terms of specifics, a lot of it will have to do with the relationships that we build over the next few weeks and figuring out where we have some overlap with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle.”

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who returns to the panel for his second Congress, said he’ll again push legislation giving states the lead on hydraulic fracturing regulations and promoting coal ash recycling.

He also said to expect another push for congressional approval of the Keystone XL pipeline if the Obama administration denies it or delays a decision on it.

“One way or another, we’re going to get it,” he told POLITICO on Thursday.

An amendment Hoeven offered to highway legislation last March to approve the pipeline fell four votes short of the 60 it needed, with 11 Democrats voting with him. Nine of those Democrats are back this Congress, and other red-state Democrats such as Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana will join their ranks.

Hoeven said he and Heitkamp have chatted and expect to work together on energy issues, and he described Donnelly as “a very pragmatic kind of guy.” Heitkamp — who spoke of energy often on the campaign trail and distanced herself early on from the Obama administration’s policies — was not appointed to the energy panel. Heinrich and fellow liberal freshman Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) are the two new Democrats on the panel, balancing out fossil-fuel-state panel Democrats like Landrieu and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).